The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Game Awards are set to be bigger and better than ever this year! Hosted by Rufus Hound – an actor and an actual regular, mainstream celebrity – it’s set to be one of the biggest gaming events this year. AND – the 51 nominees are in. Of course we won’t find out who the winners are until March 12th – but we know who’s in the mix – so we can surely have a lot of fun speculating!!

It’s not just British games up for awards either – the nominees are from all across the globe.

Alien: Isolationis way ahead of the pack with six nominations. This awesome and massively popular game is up for:

Best Game

Best British Game

Audio Achievement

Best Game Design

Game Innovation

Best Music

It’s closely followed by Far Cry 4 which has five nominations for:

Artistic Achievement

Best Performer

Best Music

Best Game Design

Best Story

Here’s the full list of awards and the nominees:

Award

Nominees

Artistic Achievement

Far Cry 4

Valiant Hearts

Lumino City

Monument Valley

Assassin’s Crees: Unity

Hohokum

Audio Achievement

Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

The Sailor’s Dream

Mario Kart 8

Alien: Isolation

The Banner Saga

Ones to Watch

Sagittarius

Don’t Walk: RUN!

Chambara

Best Game

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Alien: Isolation

Monument Valley

Mario Kart 8

Destiny

Best British Game

Lumino City

Forza Horizon 2

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions

Alien: Isolation

Monument Valley

80 Days

Best Debut Game

Counterspy

Hitman Go

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Never Alone

Shovel Knight

The Banner Saga

Best Family Game

Littlebigplanet 3

Minecraft: Console Editions

Skylanders Trap Team

Mario Kart 8

Twelve A Dozen

The LEGO Movie Videogame

Game Design

Alien: Isolation

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Far Cry 4

Threes

Destiny

Game Innovation

80 Days

Lumino City

Alien: Isolation

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Titanfall

Best Mobile and Handheld Game

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

The Walking Dead: Season 2

Threes

Hitman Go

Monument Valley

80 Days

Best Multiplayer Game

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Minecraft: Console Editions

Titanfall

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Mario Kart 8

Destiny

Best Music

Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved

Alien: Isolation

The Sailor’s Dream

Far Cry 4

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The Banner Saga

Best Original Property

Titanfall

Valiant Hearts

Sunset Overdrive

Monument Valley

Kalimba

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

Best Performer

Kevin Spacey – Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Melissa Hutchinson – The Walking Dead: Season 2

Ashley Johnson – The Last of Us: Left Behind

Adam Harrington – The Wolf Among Us

Troy Baker – Far Cry 4

Logan Cunningham – Transistor

Most Persistent Game

Eve Online – Phoebe

Destiny

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

League of Legends

Runescape

World of Tanks

Best Sport Game

OlliOlli

Forza Horizon 2

Football Manager 2015

Madden NFL 15

FIFA 15

Trials Fusion

Best Story

The Last of Us: Left Behind

Never Alone

80 Days

Broken Age

The Wolf Among Us

Far Cry 4

Do you think these nominations are fair? Are there any games you think deserve to at least receive a nomination? What are your predictions for the winners?!? PLEASE share your thoughts!

Sam has held the reigns of support steady since our beta launch. Most of you have probably suffered the wrath of his unyielding helpfulness at some point or another. Here, we let him chat about his love of all things SC2, how he got sucked into eSports and more.

Describe your role at DingIt.

My role at D!ngit is Support Management. I look after any viewers and broadcasters that have issues with our broadcast application or on the D!ngit website. I also make sure that feedback from ALL our users is documented, discussed and changes are made. I also make sure myself and my team give a little love to all the users as well. D!ngits’ goal is to be FOR the gamers, it’s my job to make sure it happens.

So far, what are the best improvements that DingIt has made to our broadcast app?

In my opinion, I think the best improvements we made recently to the D!ngit Application was when we optimized and setup the D!ngit broadcast application to stream videos games at 60 fps and 1080p Resolution – and make it work fluidly. Every user on our platform can stream at these specs flawlessly. Now we have this running, I expect we’ll see some sweet headshots and some even sweeter team engagements that result in an epic win that makes you feel like you deserve a stage, a trophy and a beer.

What’s been your most exciting day at DingIt so far?

I think seeing our first Esport event where we hosted Starcraft 2 in the ASL Prime League. It was great seeing the awesome gameplay, the casters interaction with the viewers AND the profanity competition we had with the viewers. We have a system in the chat where if you use a swear word, the word is automatically changed to a phrase from a game, film or TV series, the viewers particular favourite was the Parish Pickaxe.

What’s your favorite interaction you’ve had with a broadcaster so far?

My favourite interaction with a broadcaster was when I decided to get some broadcasters together into a game of League of Legends. While we were grouping to push mid lane we were discussing some features and changes we could make to the applications UI, but more importantly there were moments where we got some nice feedback and that they liked what we were doing and how they really wanted us to go far in this market.. Then we steam-rolled through the opposing team and smashed the enemy nexus. Another day at the office :D.

When did you start playing Starcraft?

I started playing Starcraft 2 a few years ago when a best mate of mine showed me it. At the time I thought that it looked a bit too complicated for me. I came from a FPS background where I started playing Socom on Playstation 2’s brand new online system. However, Once I played through the wings of liberty campaign mode and really got to grips with controls I started playing ranked. Of course I sucked at it at first, but you have to learn some of the basics like early game, scouting your opponent and choosing your compositions before you can expect to see any improvement on your Win/Loss ratio. I learned by watching one or 2 youtube videos (especially Day9s intro work) but also my friend taught me some early game build orders, once you survived the early game or any ‘cheese’ play; then you could get to work on making an attack/counter attack. TERRAN FOREVER!!

How did you get into eSports?

I’m part of a 4 man team of bests mates that like to game, online or lan. It’s been our thing for years and years. Initially eSports for us started when saw some professional gaming leagues of Starcraft 2 and League of Legends on WCS and LCS. We had some beer, energy drinks and doritos… I guess it stuck :). We do this kind of thing once or twice a fortnight on the weekends. Games can get as intense as it does when you watch a football (soccer) match and the crowd goes wild. It’s great to see the awesome gameplay, but also the game casters like to have a laugh and joke (and the occasional troll) which really makes the difference between watching an eSport tournament and just a professional gamers stream.

What other games do you play?

Well I build games myself as well as play them so naturally I have a large library. Most of the time it’s the mainstream stuff like LoL, WoW, SC2, Titanfall, EVE, but I do like to go through my library on steam, Origin and Uplay. I just sit and play a couple of hours of indie, or things I haven’t got to play because there’s been another huge steam sale and I’m unable to keep up with it all. AND THEN I think to myself… crap I have loads of games on the PS3 and PS4 to go through too!!!

What are some exciting features coming up for DingIt that you can’t wait to share with our broadcaster community?

Well now you’re able to control EXACTLY when a advert shows in your stream. Neat huh? We’re also working on some major features with sources and scenes, this includes getting streams to work in fullscreen (we’re running tests but we’re pretty sure if we can get that to work, it will lower the total resource usage count) so you can stream with a little more juice when you’re selecting your stream quality. Right now we’re only just starting out, so change is happening all the time. Exciting features coming to D!ngit can change every day because we have such a brilliant and fast production team behind us. Also, because we have complete control over the D!ngit application AND the website it streams to, making changes that the users want can happen in a flash. For me, that’s exciting.

What’s your favorite Video game?

I can’t choose one, it’s almost impossible to ask me that and I give you a one sentence answer. I have a few game series that I hold dear to me because they’ve been awesome for so long. Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, Socom, Kingdom Hearts, Lost Planet, Monster Hunter and Dynasty Warriors.

Is there something else you want to share with our broadcasters? Are you really a unicorn?

With just one day to go until the start of the latest Insomnia 53 festival, we thought we’d give you the scoop on this awesome event! Since its inception in 1999, the Insomnia gaming festival, which is the largest in the UK, has grown exponentially. It attracts visitors from all over the world, and there esports competitions attract plenty of big names. Aside from the esports tournaments – there’s loads of other events and competitions taking place this year – there’s just so much to do!

eSports

Of course, esports is a massive part of the event – and there are a huge selection across all three days. We have: League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, COS: Advanced Warfare, and Halo 2: Anniversary.

You can see the GiffGaff LoL final on Friday at 6.30 GMT, while the finals for the other games all occur on Sunday afternoon and evening.

Other Comps

For those who want to do something other than esports, you can compete in the cosplay contest, or the card tournaments – which include Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament.

BYOC

Bring Your Own Console! Whether it’s a pc, mac, laptop, or a console, bring it along and set it up in the BYOC LAN halls. Game to your heart’s content. This is also a great option for retro gamers. Team up with others via a LAN, or play alone. The choice is yours!

The Exhibition Hall

The exhibition hall is the main event – and is full of exciting things! There are free-to-enter tournaments, trade stands, consoles to try out, and pre-release editions of games to try. You can also shop the awesome retail area. The Exhibition Stage is home this year to an array of special guests, live shows, and exhibitors. This year, exhibitors include, but are not limited to: Game, Razer, Chill Blast, We Got Games, Gamereactor, Ultra Gaming Bus, and Riot Games.

Awesome Extras

And that’s not all! Aside from all that excitement, you can play in the retro gaming hall, complete with classic consoles, games, and even monitors, featuring more than 30 years’ worth of classic gaming history. Alternatively, head to the Indie zone where you can try out some of the very best Indie games around – and chat to the developers and studio representatives. Want a break from electronics? Head to the Tabletop Gaming Zone where you can interact with other players while you play card games and board games of all kinds! You can also check out the dedicated Minecraft zone – where there’s prizes to be won and games to be played. And – don’t forget to catch the panel talks and meet and greet sessions with some BIG names from around the industry!

We at DingIt will be tweeting live from the event – and we’ll be posting some awesome pics! We’ll be covering the live events, so be sure to follow us. Keep an eye on the blog, too, as we’ll be doing some awesome write-ups!

SMITE is a huge free-to-play MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) that has increased in size, complexity, and enjoyability year on year. And this year, between January 9th and January 11th, eight teams will compete for the third biggest prize pool in history that stands, as of January 6th, at a staggering 2.5 million dollars!

The teams competing in the final have won their regional rounds to win the honor of being part of the final challenge. It’s held over three days of intense gameplay that’ll have you hooked as you watch the masters and cheer on your favorite teams.

From North America, the finalists are Cognitive Red and Cognitive Pride. The European spots go to Titan and SK Gaming. The Chinese finalists are Oh My God and DID. From South America and Brazil, the two final teams are Name Not Found and We Love Bacon.

Aside from the awesome competitive matches, attendees can jump on a pc and try their hand at the game, network, get help and advice, and hone their skills. And, for console fans, SMITE will be unveiling their much-anticipated XBOX One SMITE game! A MOBA on console?!? You bet! And it looks awesome!!!

And – for those cosplay fans – there’s a $5,000 cosplay competition during the championships, too!

Awesome gaming requires an awesome PC. Gaming laptops are all well and good, but they’re still no match for the PC. Notebooks, like laptops, have come on in leaps and bounds over the last few years, but high end gaming consumes huge amounts of power and produce massive amounts of heat. To combat this, mobile devices have to compromise on performance and power to cope with the heavier demands for resources.

And console gaming has its place – and, in fact, many people still prefer their consoles to a PC – but, even with advances in console technology, a decent PC easily outstrips the features, functions, and capabilities of any console. That’s not to say consoles are totally bleugh and you should avoid them at all costs – they have their place. I still enjoy my next gen consoles – and I completely adore my retro models – there’s just something so amazingly special about setting up the SNES for a session of my ancient copies of Zelda or Mario!

But for serious gaming, a good PC is essential. So, we’ve put together a simple gaming PC buying guide to help simplify the process and to ensure you get a machine that both fits your budget and your gaming needs.

Lots of people, including existing gamers who should know better, rush out and simply buy the PC with the most raw power and prettiest case that they can afford. But there’s way more to it than that. You have to consider future-proofing, upgradability, storage, compatibility, and add-ons, too.

The Tower

When it comes to the tower, there’s more important considerations than how pretty it is. Consider how much space you have available, where you plan to put it, and the available height. There’s lots of shapes and sizes available and some are flashier than others. Predominantly, there’s three tower categories: Small, mid, and full.

Small Tower

Image courtesy of Xbitlabs

Small towers are sleek and slimline and generally have a simple, futuristic appearance. They have a small footprint and aren’t particularly tall, fitting into smaller spaces than traditional PC towers. For aspiring gamers with very limited desk space and a tight budget, small towers are a sensible option. However, among the drawbacks of this type is the lack of upgradability. Your upgrade and expansion options are strictly limited with small gaming PCs, primarily due to available space, so there’s no real way of future-proofing. Therefore, as games and technology continue to race ahead, if you want to keep up, within a few years, you’ll be buying another new machine.

The other main concern with small towers is how hot they get. Because of their size, there’s little room for fans, heatsinks, and other cooling features. What cooling features there are tend to be smaller and noisier, and therefore, less efficient. So with demanding processes or long gaming sessions that generate large amounts of heat, these small towers struggle to cope, and its comparatively easy to fatally overheat them unless you invest in external fans and heatsinks in an attempt to cool your system.

Mid tower

Image courtesy of ign.com

Mid towers make a good compromise. They are small enough to not take up an excessive amount of space and tend to fit in, on, or under most PC desks. At the same time, they’re large enough to accommodate more and better cooling functions and allow for more upgradability and future-proofing. Additionally, they tend to be less expensive than the monoliths. The main drawback, which is relatively minor for most people is their lack-lustre appearance, as they generally lack flair.

Full Tower

Image courtesy of Walyou.com

Full towers are behemoths. They take up a huge amount of space and pretty much dwarf most standard PC desks. If you want one of these huge beasts, you’ll need plenty of space, as many won’t even fit underneath a standard desk – so check how much floor or desk space you have available, and assess whether you’ll need to invest in a bigger desk. Remember you’ll also pay a premium for a full tower – and for good reason. They have much more space inside, providing ample room for extensive cooling systems, and giving you the opportunity to upgrade as much as you want, and these behemoths can handle hardware that just won’t fit inside a regular tower.

We’d recommend buying a full tower if space and budget constraints allow, as it’ll save you money in the long run and give you the best performance, cooling, and upgradability options. However, if you just can’t stretch to a full tower, go for a decent mid tower, which gives you the best compromise between size, performance, future-proofing, and cost. If you’re really pressed for space, or if you feel you just have to have one for aesthetic reasons, then a small tower is adequate – but remember you’re sacrificing performance, cooling, and upgradability.

The Processor

Arguably one of, if not the most important consideration when it comes to the “specs”, the processor determines the performance of your machine, so however flashy your tower is, and however much memory you have, if you have a poor processor, you’ll never get decent performance and you’ll essentially just have wasted $100s on a machine that just can’t cut it in the modern gaming landscape.

Firstly, unless you’re working to a particularly tight budget, we’d say go with a quad-core processor rather than a dual-core. Most current games run adequately with a dual-core, but some of the latest games are essentially crippled without a quad-core. Additionally, a quad-core CPU effectively future-proofs your machine. As gaming tech becomes more advanced, so does the demands those shiny new games will place on your CPU. Therefore, a dual-core just won’t cut it. So, whether you’re getting a custom-built beast or an “off-the-shelf” model, where possible, opt for a quad-core processor.

There are, of course, a few hexa-core and octo-core processors available. Now, they sound flashy and impressive, but in the current gaming landscape, and even with a view to he future, they’re really just pointless. They cost a bomb and don’t offer much in the way of a performance boost, as current and even up and coming games just don’t make use of the additional cores.

Now, AMD CPUs have their fans, but when compared with Intel, specifically for gaming, AMD models just don’t offer solid single-tread performance. Yes, going the AMD route is a sensible way to get a quad-core on a small budget, but when possible, go with Intel. While you may pay a little more, these models offer better performance for gaming.

The GPU

The video card, or GPU, is equally as important as the CPU. Even with the very best CPU, if your GPU isn’t top-notch, performance seriously suffers. The video card determines how awesome the graphics are, so the better the card, the better the graphics, and the more immersive the gaming experience.

With AMD and Nvidia, there’s really not that much of a difference between them. They both offer high, mid, and low-end units at similar price points. We’d recommend avoiding low-end models for gaming – so for Nvidia, that’s models that include a 20, 30, or 40, while for AMD, avoid units with a 4, 5, or 6 as the second digit in the model number, unless you’re working to a really, really tight budget.

If you’re running a resolution of 1080p or under, your best choice is likely a mid-range GPU such as the Nvidia GTX 960 or the AMD Radeon R9 380. For higher resolutions, you need a high-end model, but you’ll pay a premium.

Memory is of secondary importance when it comes to choosing the right GPU. In theory, yes, bigger is better, because it allows the card to smoothly handle bigger data loads before it chokes. However, if you’re running a resolution of 1080p or lower, 2GB of memory is plenty. A higher resolution ideally requires 3 or 4 GB.

There’s a growing trend of using multiple video cards. The theory is, running multiple cards improves speed and performance. However, there’s a couple of flaws with this theory: Multi-card users run into numerous issues with game support and driver issues, so the multiple cards don’t achieve their full potential. Additionally, extra cards take up valuable space, produce more noise, and generate large amounts of extra heat, all of which have a negative impact on performance.

RAM

RAM – everybody is obsessed with it – both consumers and retailers. Is it important? Yes. Is it the be-all and end-all of PC specs? No. If you’re on a tight budget, 8GB of RAM will work for most games. 16GB is better, and we’d advocate opting for a 16GB model if your budget allows. Anything over this? It’s pretty much a waste. It sits there and just doesn’t get used. Yes, in theory, 32GB of RAM will help to future-proof your machine – but you’ll pay a ridiculous premium for it. So why is it so commonly on offer and given a plce of important in the specs list? Simply because RAM is so inexpensive and easy to add. So manufacturers whack in extra RAM to make their machine a “premium” model, and add on a big price mark-up. So, we’d say, go for a 16GB model if you can afford it. If your budget just won’t stretch, go for 8GBs and upgrade when you can afford it. As long as you’ve got a tower with plenty of space inside, there’s no reason you can’t install extra RAM when you need it.

Storage

How much and what type of internal storage space is yet another consideration. Firstly, you need to choose between a hard drive and a solid state drive, or a combination of both. Solid state drives, or SSDs, are less prone to failure and errors, and have faster read, write, and load speeds. They are also more robust than traditional hard drives. However, they are considerably more expensive than HDDs. And do you really need a tougher internal storage drive? It’s unlikely that you’ll be carrying your PC around with you. And if you do happen to drop your PC hard enough to damage a regular hard drive, it’s likely you’ve also done serious damage to other components. SSDs, largely because of their expense, tend to be smaller than HDDs, so many people choose machines with both an SSD and an HDD. Why? Because SSDs are up to 10 times faster than HDDs, so, for example, instead of waiting 30 seconds for a game to load, you only wait 5. If you go this route, make sure you get an SSD with a bare minimum of 200GB – otherwise you won’t be able to store many games or pieces of software on the SSD.

Don’t forget, if you need extra storage and can’t immediately afford either a huge 4TB HDD or a 500GB SSD, you can simply purchase an external drive later on, as and when your budget allows.